Lets talk a bit about Linux today

Hello Folks 👋, Today, I am going to talk a bit about Linux today.

This is actually an old post which I wrote after I got started with Linux. Just added it here for some content.

What is Linux? #  

Linux is well known as a UNIX like Operating System, but it is just the Linux Kernel plus the software and applications/utilities running over it. The software(s) running on Linux are GNU software in most cases, which is why Linux is also called GNU/Linux.

Kernel is the core of an OS which talks to the hardware and makes it work according to the user. The Linux Kernel is written in C language and developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991. He created Linux as a Free and Open Source replacement for Unix by combining GNU and Linux Kernel. And, Now Linux has become World’s Largest Collaborative Development Project in the History of Computing having more than 8000 developers contributing from around the world and containing more than 15 million lines of code.

Where is it used? #  

Linux is used all over the world on systems ranging from micro to macro level, It is everywhere. It’s in our phones, cars, refrigerators, televisions, cameras, submarines, robots, missiles and weapons and what not. The world’s most popular OS Android is also based on Linux. Many Big companies like Google, Twitter etc use Linux and also the World’s Stock exchanges are run by Linux. Linux also runs most of the Internet(servers) and even the World’s top 500 Supercomputers run Linux on them.

Besides all these Linux is used as a daily driver (for everyday purpose) by many developers, tech enthusiasts, geeks, hackers and many more people including me ( I use Arch btw ;-) ). There is a Linux distribution (basically a Linux OS variant) for every usergroup and for various purposes.

Why should you use Linux? #  

As a Developer there are much more benefits of using Linux than any other operating system (except Mac OS as it is also Unix based) such as :

• The biggest advantage is that Linux is free and Open Source which means that the source code is publicly available to everyone and you can see how everything works internally and whenever you face any difficulty or error in an Open Source Linux distro(distribution) you can go through the code and see yourself that where the actual issue is, and you might not even have to worry about it as thousands of developers are contributing in Open Source Softwares thus your issue will be most probably solved in the upcoming updates which are very frequent. On the other hand if you are a Windows user you might have to wait for a long time for the bug to be solved :(.
• The part which I like the most about Linux is the Linux Terminal, like you can do whatever job you want to do with your OS just by using the Terminal, also you look COOL like a hacker. Ahem.. Terminal is also superior to Windows CMD as most of the CLI apps are natively developed for Linux.
• Shell Scripting and Automation, with the help of these features we can automate most of the jobs by writing Scripts such as Bash Script, Python Script etc.
• SSH (Secure SHell), we can ssh into a server hosted on a remote system and do our job remotely.
• Linux supports almost all of the programming languages so you don’t need to worry about availability of software in a new or specific language.
• Customization, this is another loved feature by most of the Linux Users as you can create whatever look and feel and customize it to your heart’s content. There is even a dedicated reddit channel r/unixporn for folks who love customizing.

Which distribution is good for you? #  

First let’s see what is a Linux Distribution (Distro), A Linux Distro is just a collection of programes + Linux Kernel and that’s it, for example - ArchLinux, Ubuntu (Most popular linux distro), Debian, RHEL(Red Hat Enterprise Linux), Fedora, CentOS, LinuxMint, Zorin OS etc. But you might be wondering why there are so many Linux Distros to choose from, and the answer is very simple. Every Linux distro serves a specific purpose such as:

• Arch Linux is for the advanced and geeky users.
• Ubuntu is mostly used as a daily driver and also run on server.
• Debian is the parent Linux Distribution, It is used in Space and also for basic purposes.
• Kali Linux is specifically made for Hackers, It contains all the tools and utilities required for Hacking.

If you are new to Linux then you will be recommended to use Ubuntu if you ask anyone in the community, and when you are used to it then you can move to more advanced distros like ArchLinux and Gentoo.

And, as for Windows users, you can give a try to Linux by Dual-booting Zorin OS (a distro similar to Windows in look and feel) along with your Windows, use it for some time and then when you start to feel at home you are ready to install any Linux distro. Also if you want to get specific Linux Distro to get started then this website will tell you which distro is best for you according to your needs, DistroChooser.

So, That’s all for now, Have a Nice Day :)